Course Rigor for Rising Junior Looking to go Brown ED

I would appreciate perspective here. My son is at a top private school. He is planning courses for next year and being advised to take two Math classes vs. Honors Precalculus. (I wonder that he’s not being gently discouraged.) He believes two math classes look the same in terms of rigor as Honors Precalculus.

I want to ensure he is positioned for AP Calculus senior year and don’t know if there is fluid movement of kids from regular precalculus junior year into AP Calculus.

I certainly don’t want to get to that point and have anyone say regular precalculus does not prepare you for AP Calculus and have him locked out of that.

Honors Precalculus would be his first honors math class (his school essentially only has honors and AP in STEM) but is being scared off by tales of that Honors class.

Since he envisions going Brown ED I thought I would ask here.

They don’t

That’s the real question - whether he would be prepared for AP Calc. But we don’t know his math department or their flowchart.

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For Brown or any elite university, a student needs to take the most challenging courses possible.

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This. Every school has to submit a profile along with transcript and a counselor’s recommendation. The “most rigorous” box needs to be checked.

BTW, just so that you know what comes next, there are >25,000 schools in the US alone. If you just take the top 10 students from each school, that’s 250K students.

Further, over 50K students get a 5 on AP Calculus AB and BC each year.

I know a kid that went to NC School of Science and Math and did not get a single B. National Merit Scholar. Was denied from every ivy.

Brown ED is nice but please don’t kill yourself or your kid over that.

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No one here will know the answer to that question. You have to discuss it with the school directly.

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Agree with all above. In our school (rigorous large public school) you have to have an A and a teacher recommendation to move from regular precaclulus to AP calculus and they only allow AB, never BC.